Students, teachers protest attack on college principal

The students and teachers of Abdul Karim Mridha College in Patuakhali town yesterday protested a recent attack on its acting principal ANM Saifuddin Shahin.

From the college campus, the demonstrators brought out a procession that marched different roads and ended in front of Patuakhali Press Club.

They also held a meeting on the spot. College students Al Amin, Tanvir Hossain Naeem, Maria Akhter and Sabiha Akhter, among others, spoke.

On March 31, around four to five people -- including college committee member Abdul Gaffar Mridha -- entered the principal's room and attacked Saifuddin, who is also social affairs secretary of the central committee of Swadhinata Shikkhak Parishad, over internal issue, campus sources said.

During the attack, they punched, kicked, stabbed and slapped Saifuddin. The attackers later took Tk 1.5 lakh in cash and various government documents from his drawer and threatened to kill him. He filed a case with Sadar Police Station over the incident the next day.

Nazmul Alam, secretary of the College Teachers' Council; and Swapan Kumar Khaskel, assistant secretary general of the district Swadhinata teachers' council, strongly condemned the attack, and demanded arrest of the culprits and exemplary punishment for them.

This correspondent tried to contact Mridha but found his cellphone switched-off.

OC Moniruzzaman of Sadar Police Station said they were trying to arrest the accused.